Painter, Tailor, Mason

As an artist long before I decided that the camera was my medium of choice, I liked to combine unrelated subjects. For example, try to envision putting fire and ice together, or an egg in the jaws of a large steel vise. The combination for this image was wet paint, soft dry fabric, and rough mortar. Think of being able to create that with the stroke of a brush. With one swoosh, paint, fabric, and mortar would flow from your brush. The way I did it, was to start with a piece of metal flashing, and carefully shape it into the curve you see in the photograph. From there I glued the fabric onto the metal flashing and started mixing up the mortar. Applying mortar to a hard surface is not that difficult, but to a light flexible surface that’s another story. While the mortar was wet it started to change the shape of my curve and I had to brace it to keep the shape I wanted. Once it dried and was more stable, I was able to put a coat of paint on the side opposite the fabric. Behind the shape are supports to keep the form from shifting. Without putting paint on the brush, it was suspended in position and was adjusted with a clamp on an arm. The scissors were attached to the fabric, sheet metal and also supported with a clamp running off of the right side of the frame. The next step was lighting the scene which was done with an over head soft box, spot lights, and reflectors. With everything in place the paint brush was detached from the support arm. Next it was dipped into the paint and brushed over the form, clamped in place and shot. The only retouching needed was to remove the clamp holding the scissors and some odd reflections in the scissors.